Guernsey
Europe
13/100
Not ranked: Crown Dependency
would rank #68 among countries
Cannabis is a Class B drug and possession leads to a criminal conviction, usually with a fine of a few hundred pounds. Importing even a small amount is treated severely. Doctors may prescribe medical cannabis privately, and a review of non-punitive approaches to drug possession stalled in 2023.
Crown Dependency. The Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes Alderney and Sark, is a self-governing Crown Dependency. It is not part of the United Kingdom and makes its own drug laws; the United Kingdom answers for it internationally, including under the UN drug conventions. See also 🇬🇧 United Kingdom.
In short all countries →
- Can I carry it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I grow it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I buy it?LimitedOn prescription only
- Can I use it in public?NoUse itself is an offence
- What if I'm caught?Fine or prisonUsually a fine; prison is possible
A rough guide read from the scores below, not legal advice. The details and the exceptions are in each segment: select an answer to jump to it.
- Cannabis users
- about 2,400
- Share aged 15–64
- about 5.75%
This site's figure: there is no national survey, so the median rate of surveyed countries in Europe is applied to people aged 15–64.
Source A median computed on this site from surveyed countries in Europe, using UNODC World Drug Report 2026 figures. Population from the World Bank, aged 15–64. The whole dataset →Score breakdown ▏world average
Select a segment to show or hide the exact rules and sources. How the scores are made →
Possession · 25%1/10adds 2.5 of 25 points
Possession is a criminal offence that ends in a conviction. In 2019 the Magistrate's Court fined a man £650 for 2.44 g, with 32 days in prison if he did not pay, and his friend £400 for the 0.67 g found in the car.[1]
Personal cultivation · 25%1/10adds 2.5 of 25 points
Growing cannabis is prosecuted as production of a Class B drug, even for a few plants. In 2024 the Royal Court gave a man who grew four plants in two tents 240 hours of community service in place of two years in prison, plus a £5,000 fine. In 2022 it jailed the organiser of a 141-plant basement grow for four years.[2][3]
Punishment & enforcement · 20%2/10adds 4.0 of 20 points
Users found with small amounts are fined and convicted. In 2023 the Committee for Home Affairs said people whose only offence was possessing a small amount of drugs were not receiving custodial sentences, while admitting that the courts may not use non-punitive options consistently. Importation is treated much more harshly.[4][5]
Sharing & gifting · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Supply is prosecuted as such and punished with prison: a 2022 case brought sentences of up to four years for supplying cannabis. No distinction is made for sharing without payment.[3]
Consumption · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Use is dealt with through the possession offence. There are no places where it is tolerated.[1]
Legal access · 10%2/10adds 2.0 of 10 points
No legal adult-use source. Local doctors may prescribe cannabis-based medicines privately and islanders can obtain them through an on-island clinic and pharmacy, or import a UK or Jersey prescription under licence; the patient bears the cost.[6]
References
- Bailiwick Express — "It's just a little puff" (29 October 2019)
- Guernsey Press — "No admittance" as man grew cannabis plants in his home (1 August 2024)
- Bailiwick Express — "He was supplying medicine while the law caught up" (21 June 2022)
- Bailiwick Express — Review of non-punitive drug approaches amounts to little (20 July 2023)
- Bailiwick Express — "You have been foolish": visitor who claimed cannabis was decriminalised jailed over Guernsey import (12 January 2026)
- States of Guernsey — Medicinal cannabis
More context not part of the score
No commercial cannabis production for adult use. Licensed routes exist only for importing and dispensing prescribed medicines.[1]
Prescribed cannabis-based medicines that meet pharmaceutical standards. The health service funds only Epidyolex for two rare epilepsies, Sativex for some multiple sclerosis symptoms and nabilone for chemotherapy nausea.[1]
Guernsey doctors may prescribe privately, and residents can use an on-island clinic and pharmacy. Prescriptions from the UK or Jersey can be imported with an import licence for each prescription, at £30 per licence; importing without one is a criminal offence. The health committee will not fund cannabis medicines for chronic pain.[1]
No cannabis clubs are known. Supply is prosecuted with prison sentences.[2]
There is no legal supply for anyone. In December 2025 the Royal Court gave a visitor who brought 16.15 g from Poole a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a £1,000 fine. The court said importation carries up to 21 years and the guideline starting point for importing up to 2 kg is three years in prison.[3]
In July 2020 the States voted to draw up non-punitive options for possessing small amounts of drugs. In 2023 Home Affairs concluded that such approaches already existed and said the work had all but paused; a separate review of a legal framework for cannabis was shelved.[4][5]
Taking cannabis into or out of Guernsey is a separate offence from possessing it, normally charged as smuggling or trafficking, with far heavier penalties. That holds almost everywhere, including between two places where cannabis is legal.
A prescription or medical card from another country is generally not recognised. Travellers who need a cannabis-based medicine should ask Guernsey's embassy before travelling.[6]
General guidance that applies to almost every country, not a check of Guernsey's customs rules.
References
- States of Guernsey — Medicinal cannabis
- Bailiwick Express — "He was supplying medicine while the law caught up" (21 June 2022)
- Bailiwick Express — "You have been foolish": visitor who claimed cannabis was decriminalised jailed over Guernsey import (12 January 2026)
- Guernsey Press — Review is to be held on decriminalising cannabis (23 July 2020)
- Bailiwick Express — Review of non-punitive drug approaches amounts to little (20 July 2023)
- International Narcotics Control Board — Travellers carrying medicines containing controlled substances
History 5 of 6 checked against a source
Score and entries per decade
13 today, from 11 before its first recorded change
This country's score Entries that moved the score Context only
Debate ✓
Guernsey's review of non-punitive drug approaches stalls
Home Affairs reported that people whose only offence was possessing a small amount of drugs were not being jailed, so non-punitive approaches already existed, and said further work had all but paused. A separate review of a legal framework for cannabis was shelved.
Medical ✓
Guernsey agrees a medicinal cannabis cultivation arrangement with the UK
A memorandum with the UK Home Office addressed authorisations to cultivate medicinal cannabis and compliance with the Single Convention. Jersey's subsequent scrutiny report records the July agreement and describes the Guernsey cannabis agency's interdepartmental membership. The month is verified from that report; an exact signing date and the memorandum's original text have not been established here.
Medical ✓
Guernsey lets islanders import prescribed medical cannabis and GPs prescribe it
Amendments approved by the Committee for Health & Social Care came into force on 28 September. Islanders could now use off-island clinics privately and import prescribed cannabis products under a licensing process, and prescribing was extended from specialists to general practitioners. The patient bears the cost; there is no adult-use source.
1113+2 points
Debate ✓
Guernsey asks for non-punitive options for small drug possession
The States voted 24 to 14 to have options drawn up for alternative, non-punitive approaches to possessing and using small quantities of illegal drugs, not limited to cannabis.
Medical ✓
Guernsey lets Bailiwick specialists prescribe medicinal herbal cannabis
The Committee for Health & Social Care moved pharmaceutical-standard medicinal herbal cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance, 1997, so that authorised specialists based in the Bailiwick could prescribe it in defined circumstances. In practice the route went unused: the Committee later said practical barriers had to be removed before islanders could obtain prescribed cannabis.
Ban ≈
Guernsey first restricts cannabis
No first law is recorded here for Guernsey. Its first restrictions on cannabis are assumed to date from between the 1925 Geneva convention, which put Indian hemp under international control, and the 1961 Single Convention, which required a ban on non-medical use.
10011−89 points
Datasets not part of the score
What other organisations publish about Guernsey, and where it stands among the countries each one covers. Every file is published in full on the sources page.
Use
UNODC
Cannabis use
5.75%of adults
LowestHigher than 68% of 196 countriesHighest2,400 people · median of surveyed countries in the region, computed here
Context
OpenStreetMap · 2026
Cannabis shops on the map
1shops mapped
Fewer shopsHigher than 0% of 59 countriesMore shops16 per million people · 2026
Our World in Data, World Bank · 2023
Population
64,421people in 2023
LowestHigher than 4% of 196 countriesHighest
All sources 7 cited in this profile
- Bailiwick Express — "It's just a little puff" (29 October 2019)
- Bailiwick Express — "He was supplying medicine while the law caught up" (21 June 2022)
- Bailiwick Express — Review of non-punitive drug approaches amounts to little (20 July 2023)
- Bailiwick Express — "You have been foolish": visitor who claimed cannabis was decriminalised jailed over Guernsey import (12 January 2026)
- States of Guernsey — Medicinal cannabis
- Guernsey Press — "No admittance" as man grew cannabis plants in his home (1 August 2024)
- Guernsey Press — Review is to be held on decriminalising cannabis (23 July 2020)
Last updated: · 7 sources · history: 5 of 6 entries checked